This Fierce Splendor

9

“You did not eat your dinner.” Silver looked at the untouched chicken on the flowered china plate and then frowned at Elspeth. “How do you expect to get stronger if you do not eat?”

“I wasn’t hungry. I ate all the rabbit stew you gave me for lunch.” Elspeth smiled with an effort. “It was very filling. I guess the heat has taken my appetite away. I’ll eat breakfast tomorrow morning, I promise.”

“It is hot.” Silver glanced uneasily at the darkness beyond the open window. “I was hoping it would grow cooler once the sun went down.

“The room will cool down later. There’s always a good breeze from the mountains.”

“Yes.” Silver was frowning, her gaze still on the window. “It will grow cooler later, but you will still have to have the window open for a few hours.” She suddenly turned away, picked up the checked napkin from beside the plate on the tray, and tore it swiftly into two strips.

Elspeth blinked. “What are you doing?”

Silver divided one of the halves of the napkin into two more narrow strips. Then she turned to Elspeth and held out the cloth. “Wad these up and put them into your ears.”

“But why?”

“There are things happening tonight you should not know about.” Silver turned away from Elspeth’s gaze. “Things you would not want to know about. Put the cloth in your ears and try to sleep, and, no matter what you hear, do not go to the window.”

Elspeth sat up straight in bed. “How can you say something like that and expect me not to be curious? You know very well I’m going to have to know what’s going on.”

A tiny smile tugged at Silver’s lips. “Yes, I know you are very curious about everything going on around you. I was hoping not to have to satisfy your curiosity this time.” Her smile faded. “I heard talk when I went out this afternoon. They will be using the hanging tree tonight.”

“The hanging tree?”

Silver nodded at the window. “The big oak tree you can see from here, the one that stands a little apart from the others at the edge of town. It is where men are taken and hung. You will not want to look at this. It is not a good thing to see.”

Elspeth’s eyes widened in horror. “An execution? The law is going to hang someone tonight?”

“There is no law in Hell’s Bluff.”

“Then who-”

“Vigilantes. Men of the town who take it upon themselves to punish the guilty. It is how things are done when there is no law.”

Silver’s voice was perfectly matter-of-fact and her very calmness sent a shiver through Elspeth. She remembered that first afternoon when she had looked out the window and thought how stately and dignified the old oak tree was, how comfortingly permanent in a town that appeared raw in its youth. And all the time it was a hanging tree, a death tree. Horror cloaked in deceptive beauty. “When?”

“Soon. The man was caught this morning and the trial was to be held at the Nugget at sundown.”

“Trial?” Elspeth felt a rush of hope. “Then perhaps he’ll be found innocent. Maybe there won’t be any hanging.”

Silver shrugged. “He was captured riding the stolen horse. He even bragged about stealing it. He is a very stupid man. There is no doubt they will hang him.”

Elspeth held up her hand. “Wait. There’s something I don’t understand. They’re going to hang a man for stealing a horse?”

Silver looked at her in surprise. “Of course, it is a very serious crime. Horse thieves are always hung.”

“I thought he had killed someone.” Elspeth felt sick. She had run across this kind of ruthless code in eastern countries she had visited as a child, but she had never expected to encounter it here. “To take a man’s life for stealing an animal is barbaric.”

“To rob a man of his horse can be the same as killing him, Elspeth. Besides, it’s considered wise to make an example of horse thieves to discourage the practice.” Silver tilted her head, listening. “I hear something. I think the trial is over and they will be coming soon. Put the cloth in your ears. Quickly.”

Elspeth gazed at her in disbelief at the childlike simplicity of the order. Silver actually expected her to stuff her ears so she wouldn’t hear the sounds of death, just close her eyes and pretend it wasn’t there. Elspeth suddenly swung her legs to the floor and stood up.

“No, you’ve been up once today,” Silver protested. “You’ll get dizzy; you know you will.”

Elspeth ignored her as she crossed to the window. She had expected the oak tree to appear different to her now that she knew its macabre purpose. But it was still stately, still beautiful to behold, and for some reason that made what was happening tonight all the more horrible.

The evening breeze was cool and pungently scented with pine and creosote. She took a deep breath, suddenly conscious of how many wonderful tactile pleasures there were in life. Was that poor man they were going to hang feeling this same breeze on his face, had he breathed in these lovely earth scents and felt a sense of desperation knowing he would soon feel neither its freshness nor its coolness?

She could hear something in the distance, the sounds Silver must have had heard. A deep rumble of voices interspersed with shouts and, dear God in heaven-laughter. “Can’t we stop it from happening?” she asked in a muffled voice.

“No, the Russian is guilty. He must be punished.”

“But it’s-” Elspeth stopped, froze, her fingers clenching on the material or the curtain. “Russian?”

“The man who stole the horse is a Russian. His name is Andre Marzo-something.” Silver shrugged. “I forget the rest.”

“Marzonoff. Andre Marzonoff,” Elspeth said numbly. Plump, eager Andre, who had been so desperate to gain the acceptance of these people was now going to be murdered by them? “No!” The cry was torn from her and she whirled to face Silver. “No, he didn’t understand. They mustn’t hang him. We’ve got to stop it.”

Silver was startled. “You know the Russian?”

“Of course I know him. He’s no criminal. He wanted only to be like them. He wanted them to admire him. Don’t you see? He probably thought that stealing a horse would make him some kind of a hero in their eyes. He couldn’t know.”

The voices were coming closer and Elspeth felt panic grip her. “We have to explain to them. We mustn’t let them hang an innocent man.”

“He is not innocent. He stole the horse.”

“But I’d wager anything I have that he had no idea what it meant. He undoubtedly thought that taking a horse would make him dashing and brave and…” Tears were glittering in her eyes, and she could scarcely speak. “He came all the way from his own country to find something that he couldn’t find at home and now he’s to die?”

Silver was suddenly beside her, trying to draw her away from the window. “You must not get upset, it is not good for you. I would not have told you the man’s name if I had known you were friends.”

“So I could stuff my ears and close my eyes and not know a man was out there dying?” Elspeth shook off Silver’s grip and stepped back. “We have to explain to them that they’ve made a mistake.”

Silver shook her head. “You do not reason with a lynch mob. They are like wolves when the smell of blood is in the air.”

“I’ve got to try.”

“Go back to bed,” Silver said soothingly. “I will find Dominic. He may be able to save him. At least, the men of the town fear him enough to listen.”

“I won’t go to bed.” Elspeth suddenly saw the gleam of a torch as several men rounded the corner. The deep rumble of voices was closer. Much closer now. “Hurry,” she whispered desperately. “Do you know where Dominic is?”

“He went to Rina’s.” Silver was already running for the door. “Stay away from that window until I get back. Do you hear me? Stay away from the window.”

Then she was gone.

Stay away from the window. Silver’s last warning had ominous overtones. Stay away because she might see something that would horrify her? Stay away because Dominic might not get there in time? Rina’s place was on the other side of town, at least ten minutes’ fast walk from the hotel and that meant another ten minutes on the return even if Silver found Dominic right away. If she could find him at all. He had to be in one of those bedrooms on the second floor with Rina or one of her ladies. Why else would he go there tonight? All cats are gray in the dark. The phrase fragmented, then exploded in her mind as she caught sight of Andre Marzonoff in the middle of the crowd in the street below.

He was the only man mounted on a horse, his hands tied behind his back. She noticed with aching sympathy that he was dressed in the gray waist-length jacket and black string tie he had affected since he had met Dominic. The street was jammed with miners, cowboys, and merchants. There were even a few women dressed in the gaudy satins that identified them as barmaids at the Nugget. Several of the men were carrying torches and as they drew closer, the light played across their faces. Elspeth gasped. Their expressions reflected such laughter and excitement, you would have thought they were ushering a hero home from the wars rather than a man to a horrible and humiliating death.

Andre was almost directly below her now and she could see his expression, too, in the harsh flare of the torches.

Bewilderment. Not terror as she had expected. Just the bewilderment and disbelief of a confused child.

It couldn’t happen to him. She couldn’t let it happen.

Elspeth whirled away from the window and ran to the armoire across from the bed. She jerked a gown from within its depths and shrugged out of her robe. She didn’t bother to take off her nightgown, but pulled the black gown over it. She fastened the front of the bodice with fingers that trembled with haste.

There was no time to put on her shoes and button them. She would just have to go barefoot. Who would notice her feet anyway? she thought wildly. They were going to hang a man down there in the streets and she was worrying about shoes.

She ran to the window, swung her legs over the sill to the second floor balcony. She cast a quick glance below and the blood froze in her veins. The mob had reached the tree!

She ran down the steps and then was tearing along the dirt street. She stumbled and fell to her knees and then was up again, running.

Thank God, the crowd seemed in no hurry to accomplish its purpose. A rope was thrown over the lowest branch of the oak tree in a fashion that was almost leisurely. There was more laughter and several ribald remarks tossed back and forth. Then a noose was slipped over Andre’s head and tightened around his neck.

She had reached the outer edges of the crowd and she started to push her way through the throng. Her breath was coming in gasps and she felt dizzy and sick. “Stop! You’ve got to stop.” They couldn’t hear her. Her voice was so weak it was scarcely audible. “Don’t do this!” she cried as loudly as she could.

She was suddenly closer, almost to the forefront of the crowd. Then the mob shifted and she was suddenly thrust against the rough bole of the oak tree. A blinding pain flashed in her head and for an instant her dizziness became blackness. Then the darkness cleared and she could see the reason the crowd had shifted. They were watching a tall, bearded man with a small hatchet who was hacking at the branches of a bush a few yards away from the oak tree. Elspeth looked desperately around the circle of spectators, seeking help.

There were faces she recognized, she realized with despair, but there would be no help. Will Judkins, Charlie Bonwit, the blacksmith at the livery stable, the golden-haired woman she had seen that night at the Nugget. They were all staring at Andre with the same expression. Anticipation. They all wanted this to happen.

“What in God’s name are you doing here?”

Ben Travis!

She turned to him eagerly. “Ben, tell them to stop it. Tell them it’s a mistake.”

“It’s not a mistake. The man is guilty as hell,” Ben said bluntly. “Now, you get out of here and go back to Dominic.”

“Dominic’s at Rina’s,” she said dully.

For an instant there was a flicker of pity in Ben’s roughhewn face. “So soon?” He glanced away almost as if he were embarrassed. “Well, he’s a man who likes variety. Someone should have warned you about that before you ran off with him.” His hand closed on her arm. “Go back to the hotel anyway. Sometimes the boys get kind of excited when they see something like this. There’s no telling what kind of trouble you could get into here.”

The bearded man had finished cutting the switch from the bush and was sauntering toward Andre.

“No!” Elspeth screamed. “Don’t do this to him.” She stepped forward, trying to get to the man holding the switch.

“Are you loco?” Ben grabbed her by the arms, holding her helpless. “You interfere now and they’ll tear you apart.”

She struggled desperately, her breath coming in harsh sobs. “Let me go. I have to-” She broke off as her gaze suddenly met Andre’s.

He was only a few yards away and looking directly at her. His face was chalk-pale and his eyes still held that look of helplessness and confusion. But now there was stark terror in them also. Then, as she watched, two tears rolled down his plump cheeks.

“Don’t let Nicholas know I was frightened,” he called softly to her. “Don’t tell anyone I wept. Don’t tell…” His last words were drowned in the sudden cry that went up from the crowd as the switch whistled through the air and came down on the horse’s hindquarters. It leaped forward!

Elspeth’s scream ripped through the night.

Silver ran up the front steps, threw open the door, and dashed into the parlor, where five women in various states of undress lounged on the tufted sofa and the several chairs that furnished the room. “Dominic,” she said breathlessly. “Where is he?”

“Busy.” The red-haired woman who answered had one shapely leg thrown over the arm of the plumply cushioned turkish chair on which she was sitting. She smiled lazily at Silver. “Very busy. Even for Dominic. You can leave a message, but I don’t think he’s going to want to be disturbed.”

A small bonehandled knife appeared in Silver’s hand. “Where?” she repeated.

The smile disappeared from the red-haired woman’s lips. “Rina.” Her gaze was fixed warily on the glittering blade of the knife. “Upstairs. Second door to the left.”

Silver turned and took the steps to the second floor two at a time. She threw open the door to Rina’s room and stood in the doorway, her breasts lifting and falling with the force of her breathing, gazing impatiently at the naked man sitting on the bed and the equally naked woman kneeling before him on the floor.

“You have no time for this. Get your clothes on and come with me. Elspeth needs you.” Silver marched forward, grabbed a handful of Rina’s gleaming brown hair, and pulled her face from between Dominic’s thighs. “Hurry, Dominic, we have no time.”

“The hell we don’t,” Dominic growled. “Silver, I believe I’m going to scalp you. Get the hell back to the hotel and-” He broke off. He shook his head to clear it of the brandy fumes that were misting his thinking. “Elspeth? What’s the devil’s wrong with Elspeth?”

Silver nodded as she quickly gathered Dominic’s clothing from the floor and tossed them to him. “You have to stop the hanging. Elspeth is very worried about the man.”

“What hanging?” Dominic began to dress automatically.

“I told you about the hanging.” Rina stood up and reached for the yellow satin robe edged with sealskin that was draped over the bedpost. “The horse thief.” She slipped the robe on and turned to face Silver, gazing at her icily. “I don’t like to be interrupted, Indian.”

Silver glared back. “I robbed you of nothing you cannot replace. Find another man to pleasure you. I have need of Dominic.” She bent, picked up one of Dominic’s boots, and threw it to the carpet at his feet. She turned away. “Find his other boot while I get his gunbelt.”

Rina hesitated and then a grudging smile touched her lips. She turned away and began looking for the missing boot.

“For God’s sake, what has Elspeth to do with a horse thief?” Dominic jammed his foot into the boot while he finished buttoning his shirt.

“She says she knows the Russian and the hanging is a mistake.”

“Russian?” He knew of only one Russian in Hell’s Bluff. Andre Marzonoff. He knew very little about the man other than that he was a godawful poker player, but he vaguely recalled hearing he had arrived in Hell’s Bluff on the same stage as Elspeth. “Andre Marzonoff is the horse thief?”

Silver nodded as she handed him his gunbelt. “And I think if you do not stop the hanging, Elspeth will try to do it herself.”

“Christ.” He buckled his gunbelt on with swift hands. Knowing Elspeth, he had no doubt she would try to stop it. “Why the devil did you leave her alone?”

“If you had not been here, I would not have had to leave her alone,” Silver said with sudden ferocity. “Why did you not return when you knew there was to be a hanging? Even if Elspeth did not know the man, it would not have been good for her to see this happen.”

“I forgot the hanging tree could be seen from the hotel. I guess I didn’t think-”

“You thought of nothing but liquor and fornicating,” Silver said coldly.

She was right, Dominic thought wearily. If he hadn’t been desperately seeking to erase the tormenting need for Elspeth from his mind and body, he would have been aware of how the hanging would affect her.

“Your boot.” Rina offered him the second boot she had found behind the chair. She cast a half-mocking glance at Silver. “Anything else, Indian?”

Silver nodded curtly. “He will need a horse. We will not get there in time on foot.”

Rina moved swiftly and gracefully toward the door. “I’ll have Li Tong saddle my mare.” The door closed behind her.

Dominic pulled on his other boot. “How much time do we have?”

“It depends on how eager they are to hang him.” Silver’s lips tightened. “But Elspeth will not wait long.”

Dominic felt a cold finger of panic touch his spine and he went quickly to the door. “Let’s go!” He ran out of the room, down the stairs, and out on the porch. Li Tong had just finished drawing the cinches of the saddle on the mare tied to the hitching rail in the street. Dominic hit the saddle with one spring and pulled Silver up behind him.

Rina stood by the hitching rail, a derisive smile on her lips. “Take care of my mare, Indian. If you don’t bring her back, I’ll take the price out of your hide.” Her gaze ran over Silver in sudden speculation. “Which might not be a bad idea. I don’t have any Indian women at my house. Interested?”

“No, she’s not,” Dominic said shortly. His heels prodded the mare into a run.

Silver’s arms tightened around his waist, her cheek pressed against his shoulder blade. The mare was fast, her gait smooth and even, but would she be fast enough? she wondered. No more than fifteen minutes had gone by since she had left Elspeth and perhaps… A sudden roar of voices disturbed the stillness, and Silver’s hopes plummeted.

A piercing scream shattered the darkness ahead.

Dominic’s body tensed, his spine became rigid. “Elspeth,” he whispered. How many times had he heard her scream just that way in the night when she was attacked by those terrifying nightmares? Now it wasn’t dreams but reality that was threatening her and he might be too late to drive it away.

He turned the corner and saw the hanging tree directly in front of him at the end of the street. He heard a second shout go up and felt a cold sickness knot his belly. He didn’t have to look at the man dangling at the end of the rope to know it was over. Too late.

The mob was melting away quietly, not looking at one another, almost subdued now. It was always like that at any lynching Dominic had ever witnessed. First the exhilaration, then the quiet, casual dispersal as if denying the act had even happened.

His gaze anxiously raked the crowd. “I don’t see her. God, she has to be here. I heard her, dammit.”

“There.” Silver pointed. “By the tree.”

Dominic caught a glimpse of tawny hair against the rough brown bark of the oak and urged the mare forward, picking his way through the crowd.

Elspeth was standing by the tree, staring blindly up at the grotesque obscenity that was now Andre Marzonoff. Ben Travis was beside her, speaking low but vehemently into her ear. She didn’t answer him. She didn’t ignore him. It was as if she didn’t realize he was there.

Dominic’s heart skipped a beat when he saw her face. She was marble-pale in the moonlight, her thin body swaying slightly. He stopped the mare before them. He didn’t know what to say. What the hell could he say to her? “Elspeth, I’m sorry. Lord, I’m so so sorry.”

She wasn’t listening. “He was terribly ashamed of being frightened,” she whispered. “Even at the end. He so wanted to be like Nicholas, like you, Dominic. He even tried to dress like you. You gambled, he gambled. You stole a woman, he stole a horse.” The tears were running slowly down her cheeks. “I’m sure he didn’t understand the difference. He wanted only to be like you. Why couldn’t they see that?”

Dominic felt as if he were being ripped to pieces. He swung off the mare, tossed the reins to Silver, and took a step closer to Elspeth. He wanted to touch her, comfort her, but all he could do was stand and stare at her. “I don’t know,” he said hoarsely. “I guess we sometimes do things in too much of a hurry.”

“They wouldn’t listen to him. He could have paid for the horse ten times over.”

“That wasn’t the point,” Ben Travis said gruffly. “He stole it.” He turned to Dominic. “Get her out of here. I can’t talk her into leaving.”

Elspeth’s gaze was still on the hanging man. “He won’t take Andre down. He’s going to leave him there all night.”

“You know the rule, Dom. The body is to be left swinging for a full twenty-four hours.”

“Cut him down, Ben.”

Ben shook his head. “Not me. We made a rule and we’ve got to stick to it. That’s the only way law can work.”

“Law,” Elspeth repeated wonderingly. “What law?”

“Our law. Hell, it’s not perfect, but it’s all we’ve got,” Ben said. “And it’s better than no law at all. I’ve seen lawless towns, and so have you, Dom.”

“Cut him down.”

Ben shook his head. “I’m not going to-”

A shot shattered his words. The rope shredded and Andre’s body dropped to the ground. Dominic slid his Colt back into his holster. “Now you don’t have to cut him down. Just go get the undertaker and get him buried.” He paused. “Tonight. Tell Jake I’ll pay for it and that I don’t want any window displays or I’ll see that he joins Marzonoff.”

“The boys ain’t gonna like this.” Ben looked at Dominic and hastily added, “All right, all right, you don’t have to be so damn touchy.”

“What do you mean ‘window displays’?” Elspeth asked, staring at Andre’s body sprawled on the ground.

“Jake sometimes sets the coffin upright in the funeral parlor window after a hanging,” Ben said absently. “And then he-”

“Shut up.” Dominic’s voice cut across his words like the switch that had whistled through the air to sting the rump of the horse bearing Andre. “My God, Ben, will you get the hell out of here?”

The older man looked a little startled. “I didn’t mean nothing.” He cast an apologetic glance back at Elspeth as he turned and started down the street. “Sorry. I guess it does sound kind of bad.”

“Barbaric,” Elspeth whispered. “Monstrous. I can’t understand this. When I first came here I thought everyone was so kind, and yet tonight… Everything is changed… different.”

“Take her back to the hotel,” Silver said fiercely. “She can hardly stand up. I will stay with the Russian until Jake comes.”

“Elspeth,” Dominic said softly. “Silver is right. Come with me. You can’t do anything more here.”

“More? I couldn’t do anything. I was helpless. Do you know how that made me feel? I wasn’t strong enough to make them listen. A man died because I wasn’t strong enough to prevent it.” Elspeth’s voice was shaking with intensity. “No one has a right to be that weak. Not when it means a man’s life. You could have stopped them, Dominic. Silver could have stopped them.”

“You can’t blame yourself. You’ve been very ill,” Dominic said quietly. “You did all you could.”

“I should have been stronger.” She closed her eyes. “I will be stronger. I couldn’t stand for anything like this to ever happen again because I wasn’t capable.” She swayed, her lashes flicked open and her eyes held rising panic. “Dominic, I think…” She took a wavering step toward him and pitched forward into his arms.

Dominic heard a low cry from Silver. Then she was off the horse and beside him. “She has fainted?”

Dominic nodded, and he picked up Elspeth’s slight weight in his arms. He was raw and hurting, he wanted the welcome release of anger but there was no one he could fight. He could exist only with this burning ache that was compounded of pity, regret, and sorrow. “It’s probably for the best.” He cleared his throat to rid it of huskiness. “My God, I wondered how she lasted this long. We have to get her away from here before she regains consciousness.”

Silver nodded. “The hotel?”

Dominic shook his head. Elspeth would never be able to stay in Hell’s Bluff without being constantly reminded of the horror of this night. “No, go back to the hotel and pack up. Meet me out front in fifteen minutes. I’ll go to the livery stable and hire a buckboard.”

Silver nodded. She swung back on the mare. “We are returning to the cabin?”

“No.” He turned away and started in the direction of the livery stable, his arms unconsciously tightening around Elspeth. “We’re going to Killara.”